Wildfire rips through community
More residents evacuated after ferocious blaze devours homes, sheds and hillsides at terrifying speed
The wildfire that cost residents of an idyllic Whitianga peninsula their homes burned on last night, with more residents evacuated amid fears the wind could change.
The blaze — described as explosive, extreme and rampant — broke out in a rural area south of the Coromandel township on Tuesday evening.
It soon engulfed whole hillsides, tearing through four homes and a sustainable farming community.
“There’s no way any man was ever going to run as fast as that fire was moving,” said principal rural fire officer Paul Shaw, who commanded several ground crews that tried to battle the fire across steep terrain.
“The wind wasn’t our friend: it stayed up, blew through and made conditions quite extreme.”
Ash the size of cherry tomatoes began raining down on residents as far away as Cooks Beach.
Across the harbour, Whitianga residents were awestruck at the spectacle: one side of the peninsula lit up in flame, and a huge plume of smoke billowed across the twilight sky.
Twenty-six people were quickly evacuated, including members of the Wilderland Sustainable Community.
By yesterday morning, all that remained of the hillside commune — an icon of Coromandel for more than 50 years — was a mess of burned rubble and torn corrugated iron.
The entry sign to the Comers Rd settlement somehow stood unscathed among the blackened skeletons of pines, gums and kanuka.
Shattered Wilderland residents were too upset to speak yesterday but issued a statement vowing that their community would recover.
Other locals, such as Jani Dennis, were still to learn if their homes had survived the inferno.
But neighbour Helen Lee, who had only minutes to evacuate, grabbing her cellphone and precious saxophone, had no doubt her house and all her possessions were lost.
All the instruments used by the Mercury Bay Big Band were also gone.
Despite valiant efforts by her neighbours Michael and Aaron Blowfield, who frantically cut down trees to slow the fire, the blaze surrounded her house and destroyed it.
Dennis said it was a horrible experience. “It was really dry and it happened really quickly and it was really scary. We’re just lucky that everyone got out because there’s only one road out and no one knew exactly where the fire was.”
There were some lucky breaks; one house overlooking Whitianga remained untouched, as did a nearby row of beehives and two cows.
Another Comers Rd man managed to save half a dozen vehicles, among them a classic Chevrolet.
But a neighbouring hilltop house was razed, reduced to a smouldering pile of roof tiles, warped guttering and the twisted shell of a microwave.
“It’s been very sad for the community and very sad for the people who lost their homes,” said Shaw. “But we have lost no lives: that’s a big bonus.”
Shaw also paid tribute to the four fire crews that had succeeded in saving other properties, and pilots of three helicopters that were last night still attacking the fire with monsoon buckets.
More residents were evacuated from Comers Rd last night over worries the wind would shift.
Meanwhile, the Whitianga community has rallied around those who lost their homes. A Givealittle page has been set up and the Whitianga Hotel is collecting donations.